Blog — Page 24

Sep 25 2022

Soundtrack Sunday – “White Flag”

Today is exactly one month from the release of Charon’s Gold (Tuesday will be four weeks) and my paperbacks just arrived this afternoon.

Here it is on the shelf with my other shinies!

So let’s do another Soundtrack Sunday!

This is a song I put on a few Livi soundtracks, and I’ll probably always have it on them: “White Flag” by Bishop Briggs. It fits well in Charon’s Gold, though, because of Livi’s single-minded pursuit of justice and obsession with doing right by someone she’s lost.

Take a hit, shoot me down, shoot me down
I will never hit the ground, hit the ground
Playing dead, I’ll never do
Gotta keep an eye on you
Patience is wearing thin, paper thin
Promises broke again, what a sin
But it only feeds my energy
So don’t expect no sympathy

Okay so yes, I originally heard it in a commercial for SOTTR, but Livi gets some of her DNA from Croft. So here’s a Tomb Raider vid to go with the post.

Put an X on my chest, on my chest
But I’m still standing ’cause I won’t forget
The hell on earth you put me through
I’ll save myself in spite of you

Yeah, those lines are 100% about Marta. Who, spoiler alert, does make an appearance or two in this one.

One of the reasons I keep coming back to Livi is her strength and resilience, and knowing no matter how dark it gets, she’s going to keep getting up and driving forward, because the situations that would terrify normal people fuel her rather than freeze her. She’s my hero when I need it, because of what she’ll do for her found family when it counts.

Even if it means quite literally going to hell and back.

Oh, won’t wave my white flag, no
This time I won’t let go
I’d rather die
Than give up the fight

Liv won’t wave her white flag ever because she doesn’t have one.

Charon’s Gold releases October 25 and you can preorder the ebook now!

Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook | Paperback

All of my Soundtrack Sunday posts are now linked on a central page.

Sep 22 2022

Letter of Shaming a Murderer

I’ve finally started recording stuff for Patreon about That Murderer from That Thread.

Part One covers 2013-2014: the circumstances, the emails (some of which weren’t shared on Twitter), the red flags, and all of that. It’s available here.

Part Two, coming in about two weeks, will cover what I discovered this summer: the murder, the arrest, the charges, the conviction.

This is in lieu of my monthly writing posts, so it’s available for all patrons that are at the $2 tier and up, and there’s both a written post and an audio version.

Sep 15 2022

Where is Yampellec’s Idol on Kindle US?

Update 9/19–the book is back up for sale on the Amazon US store. My apologies for any inconvenience.

There are a lot of shenanigans with Amazon.

Readers returning fully read books days or even weeks later that they won’t crack down on? Yep. Bullshit download fees based on the file size? Yep. Different royalty rates based on different countries of purchase that I can’t do anything about because they’re trying to force Kindle exclusivity? Yep. Selling pirated versions? Yes to that too.

I keep books there for reader convenience, even though realistically outside of new release months my sales are next to nothing. But additional shenanigans include a little clause that says they can sell a book at whatever price they want, I’ll get paid on that new price rather than the retail one I set, and there’s nothing I can do about it. (Well…the rep I’ve been dealing with tells me two contradictory stories about what I’ll get paid, but there are larger issues at play.)

This causes no end of headaches with price-matching when there’s a sale elsewhere–sometimes I have to fight for a week or more for them to restore the price. But sometimes it’s not a price match–sometimes they just…decide they’re going to discount a book.

Like Yampellec’s Idol in ebook.

It’s set at $5.99 USD. And that’s about as high as I think my very tiny market can bear; that is a huge book that was a lot of work. I think six bucks is pretty fair for the considerable amount of labour I put into it.

Amazon disagrees.

Yes, the paperback is also $4.66??? This is apparently why they decided to drop the ebook–so the logic was they offered my print book for less than a third of the retail price, then price matched the ebook and I have no recourse to fix it.

BTW the last time Amazon offered a bunch of my paperbacks drastically discounted like that, I didn’t get paid a dime–it didn’t even show up on my dashboard when people I knew bought them–so…yay for sales???

There is absolutely nothing I can do to get it fixed. Nothing. Begging and pleading and demanding don’t help.

If I only sell a couple of books a month, it shouldn’t matter, right? And it’s only a couple of bucks at the end of the day?

Well, other stores do price matching as well. Many years ago, when River was first out, B&N and Fictionwise got in some kind of price matching war and dropped the book down to like <$2 for MONTHS. Neither would restore the price because they said the book was on sale at the other place. It was a nightmare and I literally made pennies on all the sales.

It happens, it’s annoying as fuck, and I rely on this monthly to pay bills. Every dollar adds up and I don’t have patience for this bullshit.

The hope is that by unpublishing the book on Kindle and paperback (US only) for a few days, I’ll be able to republish with the regular price. I’m told that has worked in the past for others.

I have seen at least one reader making their way through the series on Kindle book by book the past week, and they’re due for this one soon. I am deeply sorry for any inconvenience, but this is the only recourse I have available to me. The few Kindle sales I do get are 90% US readers, so my sincerest apologies if you can’t find the book. I hope no one will decide to punish me for Amazon’s actions by stealing it elsewhere. It’s available at Payhip (save 30% this month with the coupon code BDAY30) in all formats, easily added to your Kindle, and with more of that money going to me directly. It is also still available at Kobo, iTunes, Nook, and everywhere else if you have apps for those stores.

If you want to wait for Kindle, please try again in a few days and hopefully it’ll be fixed.

Again, I’m sorry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sep 11 2022

Soundtrack Sunday – “Next to Me”

Sunday is for doing housework at Chez Skyla, and it only ever gets done with a lot of music playing loudly for motivation. This one comes up often and I like to sing along badly to it.

Last time I did Iluka’s song for Livi; this one is hers for him. It’s on both the Charon’s Gold soundtrack and Yampellec’s Idol. (Haters can deal with it!)

And oh, stupid things I do
I’m far from good, it’s true
But still, I find you
Next to me

Livi’s in a pretty bad place in the new book–where Yampellec was about her finding her existing coping mechanisms no longer helping her anxiety and depression, in Charon she’s found a new way of dealing: obsession. She’s driven in a way she hasn’t been before as it’s the only way to keep her guilt and grief at bay.

It’s messy.

There’s something about the way that you always see the pretty view
Overlook the blooded mess, always lookin’ effortless
And still you, still you want me

But for at least part of the time, she’s got Iluka by her side, who is always quick to diffuse tension and smooth things out, and who keeps seeing the best in her even when she can’t see it herself anymore.

So thank you for taking a chance on me
I know it isn’t easy
But I hope to be worth it

Afraid for his life but terrified to also let him go, Livi’s only other option at this stage of the story is go to it alone entirely–and I’m glad that, for a while, she doesn’t have to. Friend, partner, lover, and a big part of her journey as she goes to very dark places (quite literally, including the underworld)–she might not always have the words, but this is her song for him.

Oh, I always let you down
You’re shattered on the ground
But still, I find you there
Next to me

Charon’s Gold releases October 25 and you can preorder the ebook now!

Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook

Paperback coming in another week or two!

All of my Soundtrack Sunday posts are now linked on a central page.

Aug 20 2022

Alchemy Red Watercooler (aka that time I accidentally started a podcast)

June of last year, hypomanic on prednisone, I had an idea: what if I start a Discord server attached to Patreon and offer weekly write-ins? Added value for patrons and might give me a kick in the pants to get some things done.

One problem: what if no one shows up and I’m sitting there by myself? It’s why I don’t run contests, why I’m terrified to attempt an online book launch–folks never show up for these things and I just feel foolish.

So I asked Dina James, even though she “wasn’t a writer anymore”, if she’d show up and just…sit there so I wasn’t alone. She could pretend to write and play The Sims instead! I didn’t care, as long as I wasn’t embarrassing myself by being the only one who participated.

Instead, she wrote. And wrote. And she accidentally became a writer again.

Fast-forward to June of this year: I had another idea.

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